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No. 555,709; Patented Mar, 3, 1896.

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NITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

CHESTER A. SAGE, OF ITI-IAOA, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-FOURTH TO JAMES HOAGLAND, OF SAME PLACE.

HEEL-PLATE FOR SHOES, 80o.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 555,709, dated March 3, 1896.

Application filed AugHSt 7,1895. Serial No- 558,479. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Beit known thatI, CHESTER A. SAGE, a resi dent of Ithaca, in the county of Tompkins and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in I'Ieel- Plates for Shoes and the Like; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it pertains to make and use the same.

The invention relates to heel-plates for shoes and the like, and its object is to simplify the construction of such devices and also to simplify the means of their application to the heels and at the same time insure the security of their attachment with the use of the simplest attaching devices; and it consists in the construction hereinafter pointed out.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is an isometric view of the heel-plate. Fig. 2 is a plan of a heel-lift with the improved plate applied thereto. Figs. 3 and 4: are partial sections of a heel on lines 3 3 and 4 4, respectively, of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a plan of a modifled form of the heel-plate.

Numeral 1 indicates the bottom heel-lift of a boot or shoe heel, and 2 denotes the body of the heel-plate. This body, which is the main wearing part of the plate, is preferably made of an approximately lanceolate form, such as shown, though this particular form or contour of this part of the device is not essential. It is made of a thickness equal to that of the usual bottom heel-lift in the class of shoes or boots for which it is intended.

l denotes a thin flange or extension situated in or near the plane of the upper face of the body of the plate. The face of the body opposite that from which this flange extends is designed in use to receive the wear and is situated in the plane of the bottom of the heel.

The flange or extension 4. is made thin, so that it can be easily bedded in the lift by hammering or otherwise before the lift is applied to the heel. This flange, which has, broadly speaking, a dovetail or approximately dovetail form with its narrowest part attached to the plate-body, is preferably provided with flaring branches 5, which may have their ends curved backwardly toward the body 2 of the plate, as indicated at 3.

To apply the plate to a shoe, a piece equal and similar to the body 2 of the plate is cut from the bottom heel-lift before it is fastened on the heel. The plate is then placed so that its body is situated in the cut-away part of the lift and its flange rests upon the upper side of the lift-that is, upon the side which is concealed when the lift is secured to the heel. The flange is then sunk into the lift to a depth equal to its thickness by the hammer or otherwise, as stated, and the lift is then attached to the heel. The plate is thus carried solely by the heel-lift and without other direct attachment to the heel, and its flaring or spreading members 5 are held firmly in said lift, and the removal of the plate without destroying the lift is rendered practically impossible, while no separable fastening devices are required nor any direct attachment thereof to other than the single lift.

I-Ieretofore heel-plates for the same general purpose have been provided with fastening devices which were entered in an upper lift, and usually the fastening devices have been detachable. These, besides being more expensive aud troublesome in their application to the shoe, are liable, because of their small size and the difficulty of making screws or the like hold in leather, to work loose and become detached and lost as the bottom lift is worn ofi. In some cases the detaching devices have been made to penetrate both the bottom heel-lift and an upper lift, which construction requires unnecessary care in applying the plate and mutilates the leather unnecessarily. It is characteristic of my improvement that the plate is bedded in and attached directly to a single lift and that the bottom one, and that all separable fastenin gs are dispensed with, and that the form on the anchoring-flange bedded in the bottom lift is such that the plate cannot be moved out of its place so long as the bottom heel-lift is held to the shoe.

In Fig. 5 is shown a heel-plate having a flange of dovetail form not branched, but adapted to secure most of the advantages of my improvement. Such flange,however, cannot be so easily bedded in the heel-lift by the hammer as the branched form, as will be understood.

I am aware that a heel-plate having a thin and approximately conical flan go or point adapted to be driven in between heel-lifts and secured. therein by pegs engaging notches in said flange has been proposed, and such matter is not of my invention. My improvement is characterized by a flange that is wider at its edge remote from the body than at its line of junction therewith, the construction being such that the plate cannot be moved horizontally after the lower lift is secured in place in usual manner. I dispense with plate-retaining pegs, which are diflicult to apply so as to exactly engage concealed notches made in the heel-plate, and which are liable to be loosened or bent so as to become inoperative after the shoe has been worn a while, particularly if said pegs do not engage the bottom lift.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim is A heel-plate having a body approximately of the thickness of a heel-lift and provided with a comparatively thin integral flange or anchor situated in the plane of one face of the body of said plate, said flange being materially narrower at or near the body than on lines farther removed from the body whereby it has a substantially dovetail form flaring outwardly from said body to resist its removal outwardly with respect to the heel, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribin g witnesses.

CHESTER A. SAGE.

Witnesses:

E. A. BUsH, Enw. J. Moore. 

